Whimsical Wednesday - A Dreamy Grown-Up Tree House

Can you imagine falling asleep here every night?

Peter Bahouth, former director of Greenpeace, and his wife, created 3 separate tree houses linked together with wooden footbridges near their home in Atlanta, GA.   They used old windows, doors, wood, and other items they had collected as the primary building materials.

Whimsical and environmentally conscious. 

This looks heavenly, don't you think?

What do you think - would you like a grown-up tree house get-away?

Only if it comes with a "no kids allowed" sign.

Mommy needs a time out.

Want to see past Whimsical Wednesday posts?

We're getting ready to go to the beach, so I probably won't be around much over the next couple weeks.  I'll be thinking of you while sipping my umbrella drink.  

(Please pray for me - it's a 12 hour trip. one way. with 2 toddlers.)

Hope you're staying cool and having a lovely week!

Pictures are from Country Living, nestegg, msn, EcoBlogs

take care -
 

Whimsical Wednesday: Beach House Tour

I've missed a couple Whimsical Wednesdays - sorry if it's left any of you emotionally and creatively vacant.

But I'm back with the best one yet - my beach house.

You didn't know I had a beach house?

Huh, funny how I've failed to mention it to you, seeing that we're such good friends.

Please accept my sincere apologies.

I'd love to give you a tour and invite you to stay for as long as you'd like.

Here is our humble beach house, "Whimsy."  She's just a little place we visit on weekends.

houzz

Here's the back - it's sort of weird that the front and back of the house don't match...she's called "Whimsy" for a reason.

houzz

Now, if you'll follow me inside to our foyer...

houzz

To your right is the formal living room.

myhomeideas

The door opens to a beautiful balcony, aren't the white painted floors and French doors "to die for"? You didn't see the French doors inside...hmmm, maybe the umbrella drink is getting to you?

source

It's easy to see why the French doors may have slipped your memory when you see this magnificent view of our infinity pool and the ocean.

source

So, lets go back in through the dining area.  Yeah, I made the pillows myself, I saw them on Pinterest.

Coastal Living

Next to the dining room is the kitchen.

Coastal Living

And here's another look at the kitchen so you can see the fab light fixtures and bar stools...not to mention our   screen pantry door.  Seems to me,I saw that on Pinterest too.

Coastal Living

Can I get you a drink or anything?  I'll have Rosy, the maid, fetch you a another umbrella drink.

So on our way to the other side of the house, let's stop here at our charming bathroom.  Yep, made the mirrors too.

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Down the hall is our family room.  I think the pillows are from Etsy.  

The walls are made from old pallets.

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And through the door on the other side of the room is another patio area.

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Then, through these doors is the library, please ignore Monique there on the couch - she's my interior decorator.  She's very dedicated to her work.

Coastal Living

And that's about it for this floor, let's go upstairs, so if you're up for it, please join me upstairs.  The elevator is being wall papered, or we'd take it. 

House Beautiful

Yes, in fact, my 2 year old son DID draw those sea life illustrations.

House Beautiful

At the top of the stairs is the main hallway...

houzz

The door on the right is our foreign exchange student, Antonio's, room.

myhomeideas

Across the hall is the kids' room, and their room is always this clean.

Coastal Living

Then, next to that is the hall bathroom.

Pottery Barn

If you'll continue to follow me down the hall, here is a guest bedroom.

Coastal Living

There's a great view from those windows.

source

And now I'll show you to your room.  You are staying, aren't you?

Coastal Living

Before we get to the master suite, we'll stop off at the media room.  I love the bright, retro vibe in there.  I painted the table a great shade of kelly green.

myhomeideas 

Our final stop is the master suite...

myhomeideas

and bathroom.

myhomeideas

Again, I apologize for not inviting you over sooner.  I'm so disyoappointed that you can't stay longer, but I understand that you need to get home to make sure you didn't leave your glue gun plugged in...

Maybe another time?

If you're missing me, you are always welcome to stop by my Pinterest or Facebook pages.  

(I have 395 followers and 295 likes...so if 5 of you would want to stop by and help get me over the hump?....you know, if you feel like it and stuff - I DID offer to let you stay at my beach house. No pressure.)

(I promise that I haven't completely lost my mind...but it has been one of "those weeks")

take care -
 

Etsy Love: GALVANIZED

Wow, today has been a doozy of a day.  There must be a full moon or something because my toddlers have been out of control today. I was ready to put up the white flag and call it a day by 8am. No exaggeration.

Deep breaths.

One of my guilty pleasures is creating treasury lists, but I haven't done one in quite some time.

Galvanized metal is one of my most favorite things.(Has anyone been to the Pottery Barn Outlet Store lately - it's a galvanized wonderland of fantasticness!)

The look, the color, the patina of galvanized metal (whether it's really metal or not) is a fabulous thing!

You can click on any of the items to be led to the Etsy listing.

I created this treasury display via Craft Cult's Etsy Treasury widget like I mentioned in Friday's Camp Etsy post.  

One tip - not sure about other blog editing tools, but in Blogger, when I pasted the widget into my "HTML" view, it didn't show up in the body of my post when I clicked back over to "Compose."  Obviously, it showed up once I published the post.

It's a fun, easy way to share your treasury lists - if you try one and have any issues, I'd be happy to help in any way I can.

Have a great week.

take care -
 

Camp Etsy: Free Tools from Craft Cult

Happy Friday -

I have 3 wreaths to finish by Monday - along with the usual weekend chaos of graduation parties, in-law visits, catching up on (other) projects - but the comments I've received from some of you about my first Camp Etsy post has totally motivated me to share more.

I'm going to try and do this before my 2 toddlers wake up for the day...for some reason, my productivity drops significantly when they are around.  (oops, never mind, Emme is up!)

Okay, campers, so let's talk about Craft Cult.

A couple weeks ago, I noticed a huge spike in my listing views from 60-90 a day to 688 in one day!

Huh?  I don't check my stats very often, so it took me a couple days before I saw this spike:

After some thought, it occurred to me that one of my listings may have been featured on the front / home page of Etsy.  And If you don't know - with 1.4 BILLION pages views monthly, making it to the front page is a big deal (at least to Etsy sellers).

After several failed searches for information, I went to the forums to search the boards and came across a thread where someone mentioned Craft Cult as a way to find Treasuries that had been featured on the front page of Etsy.  Hmmm??

So, how do you search Craft Cult to find whether you've been listed in any treasuries?

Follow me, my happy little campers....

On the home page, click on "The Vault" (see my red *)

Then, choose the way you'd like to search.  I chose to "search for member."

#1. Select "lists featuring items of"

#2 Enter your Etsy Name (not necessarily your shop name - see below)

#3 Click "Enter"

If you are featured in any lists, click on the one you'd like to view.

Only the first 12 items in the Treasury appear on the front page of Etsy...

...my green table was one of the alternate items.  So I didn't exactly make the front page....but I still got a lot of views that day.

(A few hundred views can turn into much more than that - and in my next Camp Etsy post, I'll explain how.)

Now, you can create a widget (HTML Code) of the list that looks like this:

or you can choose to see an actual screen print of the first page of Etsy showing your item.

Pretty cool, huh.

Craft Cult offers some other neat (free!) features...

like the Heart-O-Matic which provides you will all types of information about who likes your shop, your items, etc.  Much of this information is also available on Etsy, but in a different format.

And located at the bottom of the home page -"serendipity" is a fun way to see listings you might not see otherwise...

...just click "roll the dice" for another grouping of items!

I think I'll try this for ideas the next time I create a Treasury List.

Now, my happy, lovely, little campers - I will set you free to explore Craft Cult on your own.

This post has probably raised some other questions for you like...

what's a treasury? 

how do I get my stuff included in a treasury?

how do treasuries make it to the front page?

why do I care how many page views I get if nothing is selling?

why do you keep referring to me as a "happy little camper"

All in due time, campers, all in due time. (Insert evil cackle here)

As always - if you have any additional information to offer - please do so, and I thank you in advance from all of us newbies for your expertise and wisdom.

I failed to finish before the toddlers woke up, so my house is in chaos.  I must be off to extinguish the fires.

Have a happy weekend!

take care -